well for starters i think you got the gnome race all wrong, they shouldnt be like elves what so ever. They should be tinkers 'Should not be just tinkers' would take the fun outa the gnomes. Geneticaly tiny yet massive ideas and constructions.

But i only think other races that should be added are dwarves and maybe undead just because they have their own style set them appart from other races such as the undead being all dark and misurable. Yet dwarves proud and a honorable race. In a fantasy i dont want 'Which race shall i be a ranger elf type forest lord or a gnome ranger trype forest lord?'

Well I wasn't saying they can't be tinkers I was saying they don't have to be tinkerers

One of the problems I have with a lot of fantasy (novels, movies, games, you name it) is this "epicitis" syndrome that seems to permeate everything. Right now, DoF is avoiding this quite nicely (one of the reasons I like it so much) and I certainly don't want to see it go the other way.

Games like WoW and D&D have made the unbelievable outrageous so distinctive to the fantasy genre that people just presume that that's the way it is. There are fantasy settings where races of winged bird-people is a ludicrous notion, and demons are rare and powerful things that you're unlikely to ever encounter. I find steam punk particularly obnoxious.

I think dwarves are good, and undead at a stretch is also fine. Demons is just way out there. I think that by making demons common-place, Warcraft butchered its universe and story. These are the kind of things that should be seen as the ultimate, rarely if ever seen power, not a whole faction. Beyond my complaints with aerial races, aquatic races have serious balance issues in that they are either severely overpowered on water maps, or severely underpowered on landlocked maps, and there's no in between. After all, how can a race whose very defining feature is an advantage on water be balanced for both scenarios? Finally, steam punk has no place in a feudal setting. I think there are really cool steam punk fantasy settings, but you can't go mixing it with a feudal European fantasy.

Darvin for a response to your concerns about the aquatic people being over powered or under powered in there terrain I don't know if you know but when you join a map a peice of map will be randomly generated to fit your races play style.

Darvin for a response to your concerns about the aquatic people being over powered or under powered in there terrain I don't know if you know but when you join a map a peice of map will be randomly generated to fit your races play style.

That doesn't solve any of the issue he mentioned. You won't be playing against yourself.

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The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based! *Jean-Luc Picard*

How do you balance out someone whose very defining advantage is that they are good in water? After all, they will lose out on that defining advantage in any environment devoid of water. How can balance them for these two different situations without removing the advantage?

It's kind of like how everyone ended up massing air units on Warcraft III maps where players were isolated by cliffs. Sure, you could always use the zepplins to transport your units and that worked well for rushes, but late game the mobility of air units had such a HUGE relative advantage on these maps that there was really no other option but to mass them. The air units couldn't be changed, because they were already balanced on "regular" maps which didn't have such serious restrictions on movement by land. The only way it could be fixed was to remove all such maps from ladder play. Similarly, a faction so hopelessly dependent on water for its victories will either be balanced for land maps (making it broken on water maps) or balanced for water maps (making it hopeless on land maps). There is no in between.

Yeah, I'd love to see some kind of a merfolk or lizardmen faction but Darvin's right unfortunately.

Even if they ruined the concept of an aquatic race by making it equally good in water and on land other land based races couldn't properly get to them in their water habitat.

__________________
The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based! *Jean-Luc Picard*